This week was an especially fruitful one for ugly police mugshots. There are the skinhead San Clemente home invaders. As previously noted, a suspected student loan bilker is certainly no looker. And by shear weight alone, a 300-pound rape suspect had it locked.
But then we took a gander at the mugshot of Marten Joseph Brandel at right.
Ladies and germs, we not only have this week's winner but a first-ballot candidate for the Ugly Police Mugshot Hall of Fame.
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First, though, let us get this out of the way: Whoa! Marten! Dude? Woo-hoo, look over here!
The
45-year-old is the homeless man suspected of hanging the noose that was
discovered in the doorway of the Santa Ana office of Equality
California the night of Oct. 29, 2010. You may recall our coverage:
Brandel was linked to the noose through DNA
evidence, but Santa Ana police officers had a hard time locating their
suspect because he is a transient.
He's also on parole for narcotics violations and assaulting a police officer. After showing up to a scheduled appointment at
a parole office in Irvine on June 17, Brandel was arrested on suspicion of a hate crime and for hanging a noose
on private property for the purpose of terrorizing the owner or
occupants. He is being held without bail because of the parole infractions.
Santa
Ana police claim Brandel admitted to hanging the noose, but he would
not say what he has against Equality California, whose spokesperson Vaishalee Raja released this statement:
We thank the Santa Ana Police Department for making an arrest in
this case. It sends a powerful message that crimes motivated by bigotry
against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community will not go
unpunished. Equality California will continue its work to open hearts
and minds so that LGBT Californians one day enjoy freedom from the
prejudice and hatred that can lead to violence.
The Ugly Police Mugshot of the Week nominees Brandel beat out follow after the break . . .
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Carla Ann Brennan,
a 63-year-old Laguna Hills woman who owes $88,000 in court-ordered
restitution from a 2008 tax-fraud case, was charged Tuesday with paying
it back with some
of the $262,000 she stole from five students who thought she was
helping them obtain college loans. (See Carla Ann Brennan Accused of Using Stolen Student Loan Funds to Repay Tax Fraud Restitution.)
Brian Merle Sawin,
25, of Anaheim or Garden Grove, who pleaded guilty Wednesday to
first-degree robbery in concert, first-degree residential burglary,
aggravated assault and other allegations and enhancements, including
committing the crime for the benefit and promotion of a criminal street
gang, for the 2009 home invasion in San Clemente. He faces a minimum
sentence of 15 years to life in state prison at his July 8 sentencing in
Santa Ana.
Ditto for Mitchell Highley,
24, of Rancho Santa Margarita. Highley and Sawin were looking at
sentences of 30 years to life with conviction before they accepted a
plea deal.
Former bookkeeper Elyse Marie Kennedy,
37, of Santa Ana, who was ordered Thursday to pay back $113,000 she
stole from St. Paul's Episcopal
Church in Tustin. The grand theft parolee was previously sentenced to
nearly three years in prison after pleading guilty to forgery in
the theft of $129,000 from the church between
2007 and 2009. (See Elyse Marie Kennedy, Bookkeeper With Herman Munster Bangs, Guilty of Embezzling $129,000 From Church.)
Michael Delgado,
27, who is to be arraigned July 15 on two counts of forcible rape, two
counts of forcible oral
copulation, one count of sexual penetration by foreign object, and one
count of false imprisonment by violence for the attack on a 42-year-old
maid who'd come to clean his Fullerton apartment on June 17. (See Michael Delgado, 300 Pounder, Accused of Raping Maid He Hired Off Craigslist.)
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.